IoT-Blockchain in Remote Patient Monitoring

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain technologies have been utilized heavily in diverse domains, including remote patient monitoring (RPM). Expeditious development of wearable IoT medical devices with a variety of functionality, real-time sensory data from patients can be provided and further processed. IoT data are centrally collected, processed, and stored. But this centralization may face different problems including single-point failure, data tampering, privacy issues, etc. Blockchain can address these problems using its decentralized architecture. Hence, the combination of IoT and blockchain is a plausible solution to design a smart RPM system. In this paper, we provide a systematic review of the existing literature that has integrated blockchain with IoT-based systems from the perspective of remote patient monitoring. We have also proposed comprehensive IoT-blockchain based RPM framework guideline that addresses all aspects of designing an RPM system. Our proposed framework addresses the challenges of IoT-blockchain based systems, fulfills the requirements of real-time remote patient monitoring systems, and integrates the best practices of the literature in the relevant domains.